Nuclear hormone receptors (NHR's) constitute a large super-family of ligand-dependent and sequence-specific transcription factors. Members of this family influence transcription either directly, through specific binding to the promoter target genes (Evans, in Science 240: 889–895 (1988)), or indirectly, via protein—protein interactions with other transcription factors (Jonat et al., Cell 62: 1189–1204 (1990) Schuele et al., Cell 62: 1217–1226 (1990), and Yang-Yen et al., Cell 62: 1205–1215 (1990)). The nuclear hormone receptor super-family (also known in the art as the “steroid/thyroid hormone receptor super-family”) includes receptors for a variety of hydrophobic ligands, including cortisol, aldosterone, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, vitamine D3, thyroid hormone and retinoic acid (Evans, 1988, supra). In addition to these conventional nuclear hormone receptors, the super-family contains a number of proteins that have no known ligands, termed orphan nuclear hormone receptors (Mangelsdorf et al., Cell 83: 835–839 (1995), O'Malley et al., Mol. Endocrinol. 10: 1293 (1996), Enmark et al., Mol. Endocrinol. 10, 1293–1307 (1996) and Giguere, Endocrin. Rev. 20, 689–725 (1999)). The conventional nuclear hormone receptors are generally transactivators in the presence of ligand, and can either be active repressors or transcriptionally inert in the absence of ligand. Some of the orphan receptors behave as if they are transcriptionally inert in the absence of ligand. Others, however, behave as either constitutive activators or repressors. These orphan nuclear hormone receptors are either under the control of ubiquitous ligands that have not been identified, or do not need to bind ligand to exert these activities.
In common with other transcription factors, the nuclear hormone receptors have a modular structure, being comprised of three distinct domains: an N-terminal domain of variable size containing a transcriptional activation function AF-1, a highly conserved DNA binding domain and a moderately conserved ligand-binding domain. The ligand-binding domain is not only responsible for binding the specific ligand but also contains a transcriptional activation function called AF-2 and a dimerisation domain (Wurtz et al., Nature Struc. Biol. 3, 87–94 (1996), Parker et al., Nature Struc. Biol. 3, 113–115 (1996) and Kumar et al., Steroids 64, 310–319 (1999)). Although the overall protein sequence of these receptors can vary significantly, all share both a common structural arrangement indicative of divergence from an ancestral archetype, and substantial homology (especially, sequence identity) at the ligand-binding domain.
The steroid binding nuclear hormone receptors (SB-NHR's) comprise a subfamily of nuclear hormone receptors. These receptors are related in that they share a stronger sequence homology to one another, particularly in the ligand binding domain (LBD), than to the other members of the NHR super-family (Evans, 1988, supra) and they all utilize steroid based ligands. Some examples of this sub-family of NHR's are the androgen receptor (AR), the estrogen receptor (ER), the progesterone receptor (PR), the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), the aldosterone receptor (ALDR) and the steroid and xenobiotic receptor (SXR) (Evans et al., WO 99/35246). Based on the strong sequence homology in the LBD, several orphan receptors may also be members of the SB-NHR sub-family.
Consistent with the high sequence homology found in the LBD for each of the SB-NHR's, the natural ligands for each is derived from a common steroid core. Examples of some of the steroid based ligands utilized by members of the SB-NHR's include cortisol, aldosterone, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. Specificity of a particular steroid based ligand for one SB-NHR versus another is obtained by differential substitution about the steroid core. High affinity binding to a particular SB-NHR, coupled with high level specificity for that particular SB-NHR, can be achieved with only minor structural changes about the steroid core (e.g., Waller et al., Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 137, 219–227 (1996) and Mekenyan et al., Environ. Sci. Technol. 31, 3702–3711 (1997), binding affinity for progesterone towards the androgen receptor as compared to testosterone).
Numerous synthetically derived steroidal and non-steroidal agonists and antagonists have been described for the members of the SB-NHR family. Many of these agonist and antagonist ligands are used clinically in man to treat a variety of medical conditions. RU486 is an example of a synthetic agonist of the PR, which is utilized as a birth control agent (Vegeto et al., Cell 69: 703–713 (1992)), and Flutamide is an example of an antagonist of the AR, which is utilized for the treatment of prostate cancer (Neri et al, Endo. 91, 427–437 (1972)). Tamoxifen is an example of a tissues specific modulator of the ER function, that is used in the treatment of breast cancer (Smigel, J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 90, 647–648 (1998)). Tamoxifen can function as an antagonist of the ER in breast tissue while acting as an agonist of the ER in bone (Grese et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 14105–14110 (1997)). Because of the tissue selective effects seen for Tamoxifen, this agent and agents like it are referred to as “partial-agonist” or partial-antagonist”. In addition to synthetically derived non-endogenous ligands, non-endogenous ligands for NHR's can be obtained from food sources (Regal et al., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 223, 372 –378 (2000) and Hempstock et al., J. Med. Food 2, 267–269 (1999)). The flavanoid phytoestrogens are an example of an unnatural ligand for SB-NHR's that are readily obtained from a food source such as soy (Quella et al., J. Clin. Oncol. 18, 1068–1074 (2000) and Banz et al., J. Med. Food 2, 271–273 (1999)). The ability to modulate the transcriptional activity of individual NHR by the addition of a small molecule ligand, makes them ideal targets for the development of pharmaceutical agents for a variety of disease states.
As mentioned above, non-natural ligands can be synthetically engineered to serve as modulators of the function of NHR's. In the case of SB-NHR's, engineering of an unnatural ligand can include the identification of a core structure which mimics the natural steroid core system. This can be achieved by random screening against several SB-NHR's or through directed approaches using the available crystal structures of a variety of NHR ligand binding domains (Bourguet et al., Nature 375, 377–382 (1995), Brzozowski, et al., Nature 389, 753–758 (1997), Shiau et al., Cell 95, 927–937 (1998) and Tanenbaum et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 5998–6003 (1998)). Differential substitution about such a steroid mimic core can provide agents with selectivity for one receptor versus another. In addition, such modifications can be employed to obtain agents with agonist or antagonist activity for a particular SB-NHR. Differential substitution about the steroid mimic core can result in the formation of a series of high affinity agonists and antagonists with specificity for, for example, ER versus PR versus AR versus GR versus MR. Such an approach of differential substitution has been reported, for example, for quinoline based modulators of steroid NHR in J. Med. Chem., 41, 623 (1999); WO 9749709; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,696,133; 5,696,130; 5,696,127; 5,693,647; 5,693,646; 5,688,810; 5,688,808 and WO 9619458, all incorporated herein by reference.
The compounds of the present invention comprise a core which serves as a steroid mimic, and are useful as modulators of the function of steroid binding nuclear hormone receptors, as well as other NHR as described following.